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Wednesday, June 13, 2018

New Super-Man and the Justice League of China #24 Review and **SPOILERS**

That’ll Do, Kong

Writer: Gene Luen Yang

Pencils: Brent Peeples

Inks: Matt Santorelli and Scott Hanna

Colors: Hi-Fi

Letters: Dave Sharpe

Cover: Philip Tan with Elmer Santos

Variant Cover: Bernard Chang

Associate Editor: Jessica Chen

Editor: Paul Kaminski

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: June 13, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

New
Super-Man and the Justice League of China, we hardly knew ye. This is the final issue of my most favorite DC
Comics book since Rebirth. Think I’m
glad about it? Nope…but I have to admit that Gene Luen Yang and Kong Kenan have
made their marks. Find out what the marks are for this last look at the series,
in my review, seen below!

Explain
It!

I don’t know that I’ve ever followed a comic
book series that was so troubled as closely as I have followed this one.
Usually, when things get weird in a narrative, I hop off and rarely think about
the comic again. This case was unique, not only because I reviewed the series,
and therefore couldn’t just discard it willfully, but because I was genuinely
attached to the story and hoped it would get better. In truth, had I not
reviewed New Super-Man, it’s likely I’d
never have checked it out. But having done so, I definitely feel like this has
been the best, most consistent title since DC Comics’ Rebirth, and it’s a shame
that it has to end.

It almost ended, of course, at issue #12. Then
someone said issue #18. And so, there were a few issues in there, right around
#16 or #17, that got a little loose—like ten pounds of story had been stuffed
into a five-pound bag. And then the series title changed to New Super-Man and the Justice League of
China…and six issues later, it is all over. It feels unfair to have this
title cut off just as the status quo changed, but I also know that we got far
more than was expected by anyone. There are some loose threads (Laney Lan?),
some unfollowed paths (Kenan and Avery smooching?), but overall I’m pretty
satisfied with what we did get.

And what we do get is Kenan and the rest of the
crew heading into I-Ching’s ghost world, to learn that he had the power inside
of him all along. There’s some great final interactions between characters,
including Kwang-Jo who we are really only just getting to know now. It’s a “goodbye”
issue, and while I don’t relish having to say goodbye to this series, I feel
good about the rich world that was created and the stories yet untold. Perhaps
someone will crack open this fortune cookie again in the future, and hopefully
they won’t completely fuck it up.

This series was expertly-written, and mostly
well-plotted and –drawn by a variety of artists. Except for one or two issues
just before this series transitioned to the new title, it’s been a fantastic
read. If you’ve been on the fence, I implore you to check this thing out in
trade. You’ll see something that we don’t normally see in mainstream comic
books: character growth. And you may learn something about Chinese culture,
while you’re at it.

Bits and
Pieces:

And now, the end is here, and so we'll face the final curtain. It's been a fun read, Kong Kenan, I hope we see you and the crew again someday. Especially Robinbot. In fact, just the Robinbot mini-series will do nicely.

4 comments:

I am so sad this comic book came to an end. It was my second favorite to rebirth (I like Super Sons a bit better). I wonder if was not selling well. I hope we see the characters in other books (Justice League?)

We will probably see Avery in a future Flash issue and maybe Kenan in a future Superman issue or hell even Action Comics. But really hope we see Baxi and Bruce meet up again. Same with Diana and Wonder-Woman (forgot her real name, think it starts with a D)